Quest Diagnostics' announcement of a massive data breach drives home the fact that no health care organization is safe from intruders.
The
international lab company announced Dec. 12 that an unauthorized third party accessed the MyQuest by Care360® patient portal and "obtained Protected Health Information (PHI) of approximately 34,000 individuals," on Nov. 26.
The intruder did not get Social Security numbers, insurance or other financial information. However, that may not be much of a comfort to patients who had their names, birth dates, lab resutlts and sometimes phone numbers revealed.
Quest's quick response is impressive, and PBN readers are aware of some of the
steps the company took before and after the breach. For more guidance on how to keep up with the threat to your patients' PHI, search our article and blog posts for HIPAA or Breach.